a. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a catheter, and in particular to a urinary catheter.
b. Related Art
Current catheters have an inflatable balloon to keep the catheter in situ in the bladder and urine drainage apertures above the balloon and below the tip of the catheter.
This means there remains residual urine in the bladder below the level of the drainage holes. This urine tends to become infected and, through well understood processes, cause encrustations and catheter blockage. This in turn leads to patient discomfort and bypassing of urine that then demands an urgent change of catheter when the whole process only starts again. Some patients with chronic conditions have catheters that may only last a couple of weeks so over the years these individuals have to sustain a lot of discomfort with recurrent blockages and changes. The National Health Service (NHS) in the United Kingdom or funding authorities over the world have to fund catheter changes that often occur as emergencies when the costs are high. The clinical and financial problem is massive since there are currently 100 million catheters in use.
Another disadvantages of current catheter designs include damage or trauma to the bladder wall by the catheter tip, and damage to the bladder wall due to the bladder wall being sucked into the drainage hole, caused by the dome of the bladder collapsing over the drainage hole.
It is, therefore, an object of the present invention to provide an improved catheter that overcomes at least some of the problems associated with prior art catheters.